12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
B
Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17;
Mark 4: 35-41
After looking over today’s readings,
I’m sitting and asking myself the question, ‘What am I afraid
of?’ Immediately things come to mind: I’m not crazy about
heights, but after my dad died and mom moved to a Senior Citizens
complex that was 23 stories high and she moved into the 21st
floor, I guess you can say I got used to heights. Not saying I was
unafraid, but I could ‘live with heights.’ When I was young, I
was at Coney Island beach and was waving to my sisters on the shore
when a huge wave swept me underwater and after a scary moment or two
I surfaced right at their feet. I remember a lecture or two, but I
got hugs too, delivered with warnings, ‘Don’t ever do that
again.’ A few plane rides through lightning storms, increased my
pleas and prayers to God. There always is that ‘fear’ when
natural disasters come: hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados. Am I
afraid of dying; not really. Am I afraid of God; no. Am I afraid of
the storms that come up in my life? Sometimes.
Today’s readings continue the topic
of last week’s readings about faith and trusting in God and God’s
plan for me. Put into a statement it would be something like this:
- When life tosses me about, I only need to turn to God when seeking calm and safety. Do I?
- Where do I see chaos operating in my world today? What do I do?
- What part of my life is chaotic? What am I doing about it? Can I handle it by myself? Am I open to asking for help? Do I ask God?
I spend time with today’s gospel from
Mark my purpose is to admit that I will continue to be threatened
with life choices…will I react in fear or in faith? Mark presents
the story of Jesus calming the horrific storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Why did he share this story: perhaps it is to tell Jesus’ followers
that fearful situations come up in life’s journey, sometimes far
too often. Yet, our faith tells us that God is always present in
those moments when we cannot handle things on our own. So do I turn
to God during them?
This account is from the fourth chapter
of Mark; already he has presented grueling life situations. Right
off the bat in the first chapter after Jesus’ baptism by John, “At
once The Spirit drove Him out into the desert.” “At once” what
a thought-provoking phrase. The footnote in the New American
Bible says, “The same Spirit
who descended on Jesus in His baptism now
drives Him into the
desert for forty days. The result is radical
confrontation and
temptation by
Satan who attempts to frustrate
the work of God.” Jesus is telling me and His followers
that Satan is real; Satan wants to put up road blocks to God’s His
love and my understanding and being touched by His love. Do I allow
that to happen? Am I caught up in the ‘poor old persecuted me’
or do I ask for help?
Mark continues and presents a ‘day in
the life of Jesus’ starting with the cure of a demoniac, a person
with an “unclean spirit.”
The footnote says “An unclean
spirit: so called because of the spirit’s resistance to the
holiness of God. The spirit knows and fears the power of Jesus to
destroy his influence.” What was it like to be totally
under the influence of this evil? Next came the cure of Peter’s
mother-n-law. She was sick with a fever; what fear goes with an
elderly person when confronted with this? Then people came to the
house and Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases and He
drove out demons too. How did these people feel? They were taught
that diseases and sicknesses were from God who was punishing them for
their sins or the sins of their parents. Had they given up hope?
How did they feel being rejected by all around them? Then there was
the cleansing of a leper and the healing of a paralyzed person who
was lowered through the roof. In chapter three came the cure of a
man with a withered hand and then in chapter four, today’s gospel,
the storm at sea. Jesus had fallen into a deep sleep, He had really
been busy. A “violent squall’
came up and they cried out, “Teacher,
do you not care that we are perishing?” In stressful or
fearful times, I too cry out, ‘Don’t you care about me and those
I love’…why are You allowing this? Then Jesus
“woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be
still!’ The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then He asked
them, ‘Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?’ They
were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is
this whom even wind and sea obey?’”
Fr. Jack Clark Robinson, OFM in Sunday
Homily Helps shares this reflection: “Fear
versus faith. The ancient struggle between the chaotic powers of
Satan versus the creative powers of God has unfolded right before the
eyes of the disciples. And they do not know what they have just
experienced. Jesus challenges the disciples directly about their
fear. The challenge of fear versus faith is a theme that runs
throughout the Gospel of Mark. The people who should manifest faith
tend to be overcome by fear, while those who have every reason to
fear respond in faith. The disciples have heard Jesus teach, and
they have seen Him heal. One would think that by now they would have
ears to hear and eyes to see. Instead, they appear to be deaf and
blind. At the end of the narrative, the disciples are left
scratching their heads and wondering who that person is who just
calmed the stormy sea.
Hopefully,
the reader knows the answer.”
Then Fr. Robinson concludes: “Fear
or faith? That question will always be with us, and the truth is
that we need the help of others to face that question. Things are
never as frightening if we are not facing them alone. Faith is
always stronger when it is shared. Gathering around the table of the
Lord, gathering together to break open the stories we share, reminds
us that we are never truly alone. In faith, we can say,
‘God
is with us,’ and we
can know that our fears can be overcome.”
I reflect on:
- When have I experienced anxiety and doubted the love of God? Who was Jesus for me in this event?
- As parents set limits over their children, what limits has God set over me? Do I observe them? Do I do what I want even if these choices bring me into ‘troubled waters?’
- The poem ‘Footprints’ provides a sense of peace to many in the midst of suffering; do I read this then?
- What ‘storms are threatening my life now? Do I cry out to God for help? Why or why not?
Frederick Buechner writes in his book
Secrets of the Dark: “Christ
sleeps in the deepest selves of all of us, and whatever we do in
whatever time we have left, wherever we go, may we in whatever way we
can call on Him as the fishermen did in their boat to come awake
within us and to give us courage, to give us hope, to show us, each
one, our way. May He be with us especially when the winds go mad and
the waves run wild, as they will for all of us before we’re done,
so that even in their midst we may find peace, find Him.”
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